


If/When

by MariGrayson



Category: Batman (Comics), Batman - Fandom, DC - Fandom, DC Comics, DCU (Comics), New Teen Titans, Teen Titans (Comics)
Genre: F/M, dw its not kory who dies
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2016-06-15
Updated: 2017-04-08
Packaged: 2018-07-15 06:27:39
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Major Character Death
Chapters: 5
Words: 15,608
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/7211627
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/MariGrayson/pseuds/MariGrayson
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>She ran to Earth, embarking on a journey that would change her life forever (forever for the better), and then she met him. Dick Grayson. And he changed her life forever, too. </p><p>(AU where Dick and Kory never broke up, they got married, and started a life together.)</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Something New

**Notes for the Chapter:**

>  **Warning:** There's a character death in this chapter! So, please consider skipping the last few paragraphs of the fourth section if you don't like that kind of thing/you don't like death imagery.

    “Do you think I’m making the right decision?” Kory brushed a curl out of her face, meeting Donna’s eyes in the mirror. She never doubted Dick’s love. Not on Tamaran and not now but there was something in her that wasn’t sure of this day. 

    “I don’t know, Kory.” Donna's eyes cut away from the mirror. “You won’t know until you walk down the aisle.”

_______

    Dick’s fingers scrabbled at the bow tie, it seemed to cinch tighter with each minute it was around his neck. Was he sweating? Maybe they shouldn’t have planned for an outside wedding but he knew a church wouldn’t have made him any less nervous (it would have made him more nervous and they all knew it). 

    A hand wrapped around his wrist and gently pulled it down from where he was still fiddling with the bow tie. He glanced up to meet Wally’s eyes - a sea of calm when opposed to Dick's. Dick let his hand drop to his side, trying to breathe was useless anyway. 

    “She’ll come down the aisle, Dick, don’t worry about it.”

    He let out a sigh. “Are you sure about that, Wally?”

    “Just trust me on me this one.”

_______

    “Just one more button, then we get your veil and we walk you down the aisle.” Donna’s deft fingers made quick work of the dress while Kory stood, entranced by the gleaming white her figure was draped in. 

    “Did I ever tell you, we only wear white on Tamaran when we mourn?” Memories bubbled to the surface; white on the anniversary of the day her grandmother had been taken, white on the anniversary of her grandfather’s death, white when she mourned for her mother’s parents, the family she hand’t known. “I never realized that it meant something different here.”

    Donna’s hand came to rest on Kory’s shoulder, the gentle pressure pulling her out of her reverie. 

    “Honey – are you going to be okay?” Her blue eyes had been filled with concern so often during their friendship that this wasn’t new to either of them. Donna had been like a sister to her, someone who gave her advice when she was unsure of herself, someone who was always a shoulder to cry on when she needed it, someone who had guided her through life on Earth all these years. It seemed like she was always worried over the woman who had made her home on a planet that was different from anything she had ever known. 

    Kory’s lips turned up softly, hopeful. “My life is changing, Donna. Everything is going to be different.” She had given up hope of returning to Tamaran after Karras' death. She had given in to so much of Earth. She had changed, she was of Earth now as much as she was of Tamaran and she would move forward as the mix of the two. She would hold to her traditions but she would move forward in her new life, unafraid. She stared down at the bracelet that was tucked under the fabric of her sleeve, something her mother had tucked into her hand the last time she had seen her. It was an anchor to her past as she moved into her future. When she looked up at herself again, she smiled at herself with her teeth, her eyes gleaming with hope.

    “White doesn’t have to mean anything to me anymore, Donna. I get to make my own decisions from now on.” 

_______

    The organ started up but Dick didn't hear it. His eyes were trained on the archway Kory was supposed to walk through. He was focused on her. Small meditation had soothed his frayed nerves, he was ready to watch her walk down the aisle but he was still afraid she wouldn't walk down it. 

    And then - there she was. Swathed in white, her hands cradling her bouquet, the garland of flowers nestled in her curls; she looked more the princess to him now than she ever had. Their eyes met and Kory’s lips spread into a shy smile to match Dick’s grin. Vic had her left arm, Donna her right and together they brought her to the altar. Two of her best friends, carrying her into the newest chapter of her life. 

    They wouldn’t want it any other way. 

    Donna let go of Kory first, laying a kiss on her cheek and taking her place as maid of honor. Vic let go last, poking a finger at Dick’s chest on his way to sit down. “You better take care of her, Shortpants.” The unspoken ‘she’s the best a jerk like you could hope for’ hung in the air between them before they broke the tension with a hug. Vic pulled away and pointed again but with a smile on his face. “You know it’s true.”

    He did. 

    Kory watched them, blowing a kiss at Vic when he turned back to look at her. 

    Then finally, she turned to him and slid her arm through his and waited. Dick let his other hand rest on her arm. 

    The priest waited for the guests to quiet and gave a gentle smile. The worn creases next to his eyes crinkling as he looked both at the couple and all those that had come to support them. 

    “Good afternoon, everyone,” his soft voice carried over the wedding party. “I’d like to thank you for coming to the wedding of Dick Grayson and Kory Anders – I know that if they could take their eyes off of each other, they would tell you the same thing.” A ripple of laughter went through the audience as Kory blushed but Dick didn’t break his stare. 

    The priest continued, “I’m sure many of you have heard of the unconventional way these two met. A kiss before the first date,” 

    Vic mumbled somewhere in the crowd. “Not like Robbie stepped up to the plate.” 

    The priest shook his head, “That led to the wonderful wedding we are all gathered here for today.” 

    It was more than joyous or wonderful, it was a celebration of everything they had overcome to be here. Everything they had let go of to make this work. It was a celebration of everyone who had known they would make it (Donna) and it would hopefully last them the rest of their lives. Dick squeezed Kory's hand and she bumped him with her shoulder. 

    The rest of the speech was a blur to them. They said their ‘I do’s,’ Kory’s hand took hold of Dick’s to exchange rings, and they stared into one another's eyes.

    Then a yell came from the wedding party just as their lips brushed and they each jumped back. That wasn't a shout of joy. It was a shout of _fear_ Kory’s eyes went skyward, following the fingers and shouts of the rest of their party. 

    Dick spun around, following her gaze to where it had come to rest. 

    Raven. They had forgotten about Raven. 

    She was lounging in the air above the tree line. But it wasn’t Raven. It was her body but it wasn’t their friend - Trigon reincarnate was what she was now. 

    “I can’t believe this,” her voice curled through the air, low and smooth, brushing over ears like silk. “I wasn’t invited to my own best friend’s wedding.” A Cheshire smile had wound it’s way onto her face. She knew what she was doing to Kory, who looked ready to collapse onto her knees. 

    “I thought,” Kory’s tears balanced on her lashes, trembling as they refused to spill over. “I thought you were dead, Raven.” 

    Donna had already tugged Kory backwards, the little she could do without her powers, she did and Kory went willingly. Her hand covered her mouth now, trying to quell the sobs they knew would be coming at the view of their desecration of their friend's body. It was a perversion of everything they had known. Dick pulled a batarang from his pocket and in the short time since Raven had appeared out of thin air, the Titans had armed themselves. Roy had hidden a bow and arrow under his chair, Vic already held up his sonic canon, and even Tim had somehow managed to hide his costume under his suit. They had been ready for this, even if Kory hadn't been. 

    “All this for me?” Raven bared her teeth. “I’m so flattered, it seems I’m more important than I thought.”

    Silence had fallen over the wedding. The only sounds were the whirring mechanics of a metal arm, a finger pulling a bowstring taught, and sound of a hand rubbing over the metal of a batarang. Time had slowed to nothing as they waited for someone to make the first move. No one panicked. The shouts had quieted and from surprise came anger. 

    When it came, no one knew how it had happened. Raven had been in the sky, her smile taunting them as they mimicked a statue garden, then she was falling – her chest a smoking mess of viscera and gore. 

    All eyes were on Raven as she fell but none were on Kory as she sank to her knees, a hand still raised to the sky as her tears spilled down her cheeks. 

_______

    “Dick, I’m sorry – I thought I had secured the perimeter, I kept running checks, I – I’m sorry.” 

    He’d never seen Tim this anxious. Stumbling over his words, unsure of himself, unsure of what was happening. Just like they all were right now. 

    “It’s okay, Tim. You can’t predict everything.” He finally looked up from his hands, weary eyes landing on Tim’s face. “It’s not your fault. We hadn’t thought Raven would be a threat.” 

    Tim nodded, unconvinced but unsure what to do. There wasn’t any protocol for this situation. He sat. There was nothing else to do. 

    Dick’s shoulders slumped. It completed his look. His undone tie hung down from a rumpled collar, the unbuttoned vest and shirt unrecognizable from what they had been a few hours before. There was nothing put together about him, not after what he had seen. By now, though, it was far from his mind. Kory had taken his complete focus. On her knees in the grass, her hands covering her mouth, tears dripping off of her chin. 

    That was the image he couldn’t get out of his mind.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thanks for reading! If you liked it, please consider giving this chapter a kudos or leaving a comment to tell me what you thought about it~


	2. Decisions

    “You were moaning in your sleep last night.” His eyes flicked up from his cooking momentarily before taking his spatula and scraping bits of dried egg from the pan into the trash.

    It was no surprise to Kory. She knew what she had dreamed of the night before. Her hand, holding itself up as though of its own volition, Raven dropping like a stone into the sea. Her friend’s hands twitching as her brain died. Her eyes staring into the sky, seeing nothing but looking beyond it. 

    Kory wrapped her hands around her mug of tea and took a sip as Dick set the pan back onto the stove. He leaned back against the counter, crossing his arms across his chest. 

    “Do you want to talk about it?” His eyes were soft, his eyebrows drawn together in concern. He and Donna could be siblings (they practically were) with their identical facial expressions, probably learned from each other. 

    She set her mug down on the table and leaned forward. The silence between them didn’t stretch but the question still hung in the air between them. 

    She sighed. “I don’t know what to talk about. You saw what happened.”

    “Yeah,” he nodded slowly, turning her answer over in his mind. “I did see what happened.” He took a moment to push himself off of the counter to come sit by her, taking the place closest to her. “But I’m not the one who did it.” 

    It was an innocuous statement coming from Dick but the intention behind it didn’t make it feel comforting. 

    Kory stared into her mug. Her eyes probing the depths of the liquid, looking for an answer in it that she couldn’t find in herself. She sighed, letting it escape through her nose, letting her chest fall and her shoulders relax while she tried to look for anything she could say. 

    Candor was always her closest ally but now it eluded her. Clarity of what she was feeling got away from her, it got muddled when she tried to think about what she had done. Was she angry? With herself, with Raven? Was she sad? Was she mourning a friend or was she mourning what she had done?

    There were too many questions. Too much time spent on Earth had lost her the ability to discern exactly what she was feeling. But she couldn’t return to Tamaran when they were in the middle of another war – was it a new conflict or a continuance of the conflict that had followed Tamaran for the last one hundred years? It didn’t make a difference, the war that waged there never changed. She would have to get in touch with herself on Earth. 

    She took another sip of the tea and turned to look out the window, her eyes traveling over the city. 

    “I’ve never had trouble knowing what to say before,” her hands wrapped around the mug tighter. “I’ve never had to kill someone I loved before and I know you’re not happy about it, Dick, but neither am I –”

    “I never said –”

    She set the mug down to hold up a hand. Kory looked at him this time, the city outside of their walls long forgotten. “Dick, you don’t have to say it. I can see it whenever you tell me I’ve been talking in my sleep again, I can see it when you ask me if I’m okay. I know you’re not happy about what happened and I know that you’re worried about me. I just don’t know what to tell you.”

    The silence was there again, wrapped around them as Dick came to terms with what Kory was telling him. They had talked about the subject fleetingly. Tip-toed around it when it came up. Donna called him to tell him she was worried about Kory. Their friends had taken her out whenever they all had time. 

    They were all worried about Kory.

    He reached over and set his hand on hers, squeezing her fingers. “I’m sorry I didn’t look closer.”

     “You’re doing the best with what you have, Dick.” Her smile was tired but it was obvious that she couldn’t resist taking a jab at the shape his own emotions were in. “Just give me some more time, okay?”

_____

    She floated, her hand held in front of her, aimed at the man they were supposed to apprehend. Someone that Dick had tracked down in the case he had been working on; one of three suspects in a serial robbery case. The details ran through her mind so quickly that she could barely see her hand.

    The information overload came with the rush of memories. They had been slightly dulled by time but she was pulled back into them nonetheless. The twitch of Raven’s limbs and her un-seeing eyes pointed skyward were all she could see. Focusing on the details of the case couldn’t help her this time, her eyes were already squeezed shut and her hand had worked itself into a fist. 

    “Starfire!” 

    The voice cut through her memories, sharp as a knife. She blinked and looked down, her feet were no longer in the air, they were planted firmly on the concrete of the sidewalk. Kory looked up just in time to see Dick cuffing the man. The struggle was evident. Dick’s hair flew in his face, his costume was askew and pulled more towards one shoulder than the other. The collar, usually ridiculously upright, was crumpled and dirty. 

    “I –” Kory had dropped her arm to her side already, her hand uncurled and limp at her side. 

    Dick shoved his hair back into place, out of breath and irritated. “What were you thinking? He could’ve gotten away, Kory, and then we would have had to start over. Maybe another hostage situation, another person dead.” She backed away as his voice rose. “If he had gotten away – really, Kory, what were you doing?”

    X’hal, she hated when he yelled like this. She should have taken more time for herself, time off in the face of all of this. Barely seven months after she had killed one of her friends and she could hardly raise a hand to form a starbolt. 

    Her hands curled around her arms, holding herself as Dick’s eyes searched her face. She looked away from him, to the sky, watching as Donna came to alight on the street with the other suspect. The other runner. 

    “Kory?” His voice was softer. 

    She still couldn’t look at him. 

    Kory took a breath. “It was Raven.” She could see Dick’s mouth open and close, then open again. Donna saved them from whatever Dick was going to say next but no doubt, the gears were whirring in his head trying to figure out what to say to her. What to do. Kory watched as Donna sat the other suspect down. She didn't look nearly as tired as Dick did but she hadn’t had a partner freeze in the middle of everything either. 

    Donna stopped in front of them, her eyes bright from the chase, and ran a hand through her hair. “Looks like you guys did your job. Do we still not know where the third suspect is?” The silence between the three of them as Dick’s jaw worked was more than noticeable. Donna let her hands fall to her hips, eyes flicking between Dick and Kory. 

    She cleared her throat. “Dick, you should see what they know. You can get more answers out of two of them.”

    Dick looked at Donna, seeing her for the first time, and looked back to Kory. His mouth had worked itself into a soft frown. Not the scowl it had been but not even close to a smile. 

    He sighed, letting go of the tension in his shoulders. “That’s a better idea than what I was doing.” He turned and went. 

    Donna watched him go before turning to Kory, her blue eyes intense and still bright as she took in Kory’s hands clutching her arms. As she thought about Dick’s mouth pulled down into a frown. 

    “Kory, what’s going on?” Her head tilted to the side slightly. 

    Kory’s eyes met Donna’s. “I started thinking about Raven when I tried to stun that man.” She nodded to where Dick was crouched in front of the suspects. “You know how hard it is to talk to Dick when he’s in the middle of a situation like this.” 

    Donna nodded, her eyes following the nod to Dick’s crouched figure. “I know.” 

    Dick had his own demons to face but he still wasn’t sure how to handle this kind of situation. Emotions were never his strong suit.

    “Donna,” she paused, trying to think of what she could say. “I think I should take some time off of the team. Just for a month or two. I need to focus on something else.” Something that didn’t pull her back to her memories.

    “Kory, you should have told us sooner.” Her voice was soft. She took Kory’s hand in her own, giving her fingers a squeeze. “Take as much time as you need, honey. There’s nothing wrong with needing some time.”

_____

    “So, you’ve talked about this with Kory?” Donna raised an eyebrow. “Or are you going to try and move your life together to Bludhaven without asking her?”

    The muscle in his jaw fluttered as he sat and listened to her (for once). He hadn’t planned on that exactly but he hadn’t told Kory yet. Bludhaven needed them like Gotham needed Batman, only Bludhaven was completely out of control. There was nothing stopping anyone from taking the city for their own and if someone didn’t do something soon, it would be lost. That was where he decided Nightwing and Starfire should come in. 

    Obviously, Donna didn’t see it the same way. 

    “I wasn’t going to keep her out of the loop, Donna.” He leaned back in his chair, arms crossed over his chest. 

    “You could’ve fooled me.” She leaned forward, almost into the space he had just vacated. “Has Kory showed you in any way that she’s ready for this? Have her nightmares told you that? Or was it when she had a flashback in the middle of a chase that made you decide that she should come with you to take on Bludhaven of all places?” Her eyebrows had turned down and her jaw had tightened, all in defense of her best friend. The woman she placed her most trust in. The woman who needed all of their support right now. The woman who didn’t need a place like Bludhaven in her life. 

    Dick’s jaw was clenched, a kind of death grip, his lips white as the blood was pushed out of them. He leaned forward, hands gripping the edge of the table. “I thought a change of pace might help her. Something new. No more looking at the city when all she can see is Raven.” He sat back again, the color returning to his lips and knuckles. “I just want to do something good for her, Donna.”

    People were starting to look (gawk) at them as their argument heated up, both of them leaning into the conversation, their jaws tight and the tips of their fingers white. 

    Donna sucked on her teeth for a moment, looking almost thoughtful as anger simmered just below the surface. “Are you sure it’s for her, Dick?” Her voice had lowered.

    Dick’s face was all irritation as he thought over her question. It felt like she was turning against him, like she was trying to make him feel like he wasn’t making the best decision for the woman he loved. 

    And maybe he wasn’t. He had waited to tell her until it was almost too close to make the decision. He wanted to be there for Kory, he wanted to do what was best for her. He loved her. There wasn’t anything he wouldn't do for her and he had thought that this was the best thing for her. For the two of them. Donna had flipped the script and made him question everything he had thought he had known about the choice he wanted to make.

    “Why do you do this?” He crossed his arms again, defeated. 

    Donna huffed. “Who else would keep you from doing something stupid?”

    He snorted but he knew she was right. Vic, Kory, Donna. The only three people who really called him on what he was doing and Donna was the only one he had told about this decision. 

    “Fine, you caught me. It was stupid not to tell Kory right away.”

    “Does that mean you’re going to tell her as soon as you get home?”

_____

    He’d promised Donna he would tell Kory as soon as he got home but Kory hadn't been there, she was still working. She had modeled increasingly since they had gotten married, doing more and more jobs with the hologram projector that Vic had designed for her. Her golden skin looked more like an olive tone and her eyes were more human with a visible sclera and irises. She still looked like Kory but it was disconcerting to look at her when she had it on.

    He’d had to wait a few hours for her. Doing whatever small thing around the apartment he could to occupy himself but not get sucked into looking at case files. He straightened up the table, stacking case files he was finished with and setting them aside. Taking loose papers and putting them in his file folder. 

    The door creaked open and Kory’s purse was dropped onto the floor before Dick looked up, the red of her hair catching his eye like it always did. 

    “Hey, Kor.” The files he had been holding thumped on the table and he gave a smile. It was soft, inviting after a long day of work. She smiled back, her eyes crinkling at the edges and her cheeks dimpled. She leaned her back into the door, her palms flat against it as it closed.

    “Hi,” her hologram eyes sparkled before she twisted the ring and shut off the projection. “Did you and Donna have a good lunch? I know you haven’t spent a lot of time together lately.” She kicked off her shoes and shrugged out of her jacket, savoring the feel of the cool air on her skin. 

    Dick’s eyes roamed over her bare arms and nodded. “Yeah, we had a good time.” He paused and watched her flop onto the couch, making herself comfortable. Dick drummed his fingers on the table. “Can we talk about something?”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thank you so much for reading this chapter! If you liked it, please consider giving it a kudos/leaving a comment to let me know how much you enjoyed it.


	3. What We Lose

    Kory’s knuckles turned white as she gripped the wheel of the truck, bumping over the potholes in the freeway. It seemed like the truck went airborne every time they drove over the gouges in the asphalt. Somehow, the roadway had gotten worse the closer they got to Bludhaven and they bumped over potholes every couple of minutes.

    

She blew a sharp breath through her nose. “Donna, how much longer until we get there?”

    

The map crinkled in Donna’s hands as she looked the map over. “Well, it looks like we have about twenty miles to go before we hit the Bludhaven city limits. So,” she sighed. “A while.”

    

Twenty miles was nothing to Kory when she was flying but she had volunteered to drive the moving truck. She was forced to drive slower than everyone else. Vic and Gar drove in front of them but Roy had sped to the destination with Dick in the passenger seat, no doubt wondering why he ever let Roy drive him in the first place.

   

Donna folded the map again, the paper rubbing against itself as she shoved it under her seat.

    

She sat back and stared through the windshield. “How did Dick convince you to move to Bludhaven, Kory?” The question had lingered in her mind since Kory had told her they were moving. Somehow, questioning Kory's decision was worse than doubting Dick's integrity.

    

Kory shook her head. “He didn’t have to convince me,” she paused, bits and pieces of her conversation with Dick still rolling through her head. His hesitant questions and her immediate answers. “I could do something different here. New York doesn’t need us as much as it used to and with the team disbanded – I need to do something useful, Donna.”

    

Donna bit down on her lip. With the Team Titans doing whatever they were doing and Roy working with the new team, it felt like the old team was left hanging. Vic was working at STAR Labs, Gar was finally going to high school consistently, Dick and Kory were married and moving away. And she was in the middle of her divorce, negotiating parental visitation times and wishing she had been more careful when she had married Terry.

    

She sighed. “I know what you mean. The Darkstars take up my time but they aren’t family. Not like you are.” The team didn’t work together the way the Titans did. The team bond didn’t run as deep as her bond with the Titans did. Donna propped her elbow against the door.

    

Kory’s hands tightened on the wheel again as they went over another pothole. The team wasn't quite a team anymore; they were still a family but the team part of their lives was fading away, Dick and Kory's move just solidified it. It had never occurred to Kory before.

    

“Donna,” she stole a glance. “New Jersey isn’t that far away. I can fly to you whenever I want to and we already talk on the phone almost every night.” Her hands were bound to leave dents in the steering wheel. “I’m not leaving you.”

    

Donna nodded and chewed her bottom lip for a second. “I know you aren’t, honey.” She kept her eyes trained on the horizon. “It just feels like the team is fading away.”

    

Kory sighed. “I know.”

___

    

“Are you sure this is it?” Roy looked at Dick over his sunglasses, incredulous.

    

Dick glanced over to Roy, then back to the building. Four stories high with a basement, the entire thing right in the middle of Bludhaven and it wasn’t as bad as Roy would have everyone believe. Everything in Bludhaven had a kind of grubby feel about it but that was any city; Gotham had the same look and so did New York. He wasn’t seeing anything new.

   

 “I think you’re judging it a little harshly.” Dick turned to the car and hefted a box out of the back. “The apartment I picked is nice, you’ll see.”

   

 “Yeah but will Kory like it? That’s kind of important, you know.” Roy grabbed a box and kicked the car door closed.

    

Dick shrugged. “Then we can move, I want her to be happy.”

   

 “If she’s not happy, I can always make a reappearance.” Roy wiggled his eyebrows.

   

 “I don’t think she wants to date a loser, Roy, so you’re a little out of luck here.”

    

“You wound me, Grayson.” He laughed. “I’d love to think that your wife would take me over you but I don’t have that whole mysterious charm going on.”

    

Dick sighed. “Now you’ve really lost me.”

    

They started up the second flight of stairs.

    

“You know – that whole serious, mysterious detective aura you had going on when you guys first met.” Roy shrugged and Dick snorted as they approached the second floor.

    

“Mysterious?” He fumbled for the apartment keys as Roy plunked the box down next to the door. “I wasn’t that secretive.” He shoved the key into the lock and tried to force it to turn. “Right? I just had a lot of things going on. Dropping out of college, all that stuff with Bruce.” The lock finally gave.

    

“Didn’t you forget to tell her key details about your life and ignore her for a little while?” Roy hefted the box up again and stepped into the apartment, following Dick’s lead. “That’s kind of mysterious. I can’t say that it would work for me but it sure worked for you guys.”

    

“Dick grunted and dropped his box to the floor. “Funny.”

    

“Roy shrugged and let his own box go. “Hey, you asked.”

___

    

““Goldie, are you sure this is it?” Vic’s face had twisted into some sort of quasi-grimace as he got out of his car. Four stories high and kind of squat, the apartment sat in the middle of two taller buildings in almost the center of Bludhaven. This didn’t seem like the kind of place Kory would be living but he had to save his doubts until she confirmed them.

    

“I’m sure!” Kory called out from the back of the moving truck. She thought the building had its own charm. It was industrial and kind of grubby looking, the look that all big cities seemed to share with each other on Earth but it looked like Bludhaven. And if this was going to be her new home, she was going to have to like it.

   

Kory grabbed two boxes nearest to her and stepped out of the truck.

    

He shrugged and made his way to the back of the truck just in time for Donna to hand down a few boxes. “So, why didn’t you guys get movers to do this?”

    

“Because there’s six of us and we can move the boxes on our own?” Donna grabbed a box and jumped down from the truck. “And movers cost money.”

    “Did someone say money?” Gar poked his head out of the truck. 

    

“Shut up, Salad Head.”

    

Donna rolled her eyes and followed Kory through the apartment door. Gar and Vic bantered back and forth all the way up to the second floor and into the apartment.

   

 “Well,” Vic stacked his boxes on top of the ones already on the floor. “I gotta say, it definitely looks better on the inside.”

   

A mumble of agreement rippled over the group and Dick shrugged.

    

“What? Did you guys think I wouldn’t choose a good apartment?” He raised both brows and Roy raised his hands, imitating a scale.

    

“On one hand, if I say ‘no’ I’m risking a friendship and on the other hand, if I say ‘yes’ I’m a suck up.” The man shrugged and pulled a face at his friend. “I think you did an okay job on this one, Dick.”

    

“I say you’re still a suck up.” Gar shrugged, trying to affect an air of indifference. “I didn’t know Dick had any taste – you did make a costume with an extreme disco collar.”

    

Donna elbowed him playfully. “I don’t think this is the time to be insulting Dick’s taste.”

    

“Alright, alright,” Gar threw his hands up. “I think the apartment looks pretty okay.”

    

“I think it looks wonderful,” Kory draped her arms over Dick’s shoulders. “I don’t think you could have chosen a better apartment.”

    

“Goldie, you have to say that to him. I can see the ‘help me’ in your eyes – it’s okay, you’re in a safe place.” Gar’s face turned faux solemn. “There’s nothing stopping you from getting help.”

    

Kory laughed but Dick’s stare was withering. “Hilarious.”

    

“Shouldn’t we be unloading the rest of the boxes?” Vic interrupted Dick’s one-man stare down. “There’s no one waiting with the truck right now.”

    

“Oh, you’re right!” Kory popped up from hanging on Dick and followed him through the apartment door. The rest of the team followed suit, soon all of them were moving up and down the flights of stairs; carrying boxes up to the apartment and fitting them against the walls, in the corners, and when it was convenient they set them in the middle of the living room.

    

Kory shut the back of the truck with the resounding bang of metal against metal. The group was tired, sweaty, and hungry. Gar’s stomach growled in protest all the way up to the apartment and as he flopped onto the floor.

    

He gave a groan from the floorboards. “Are we being paid for our services? You know, with food or something like that?”

    

Dick looked up from the take-out menus he had spread over the folding table he had lugged up the stairs.

    

“No, I’m letting you forage in the garbage cans outside, Gar.”

    

“I think that counts as cruel and unusual punishment,” he rolled onto his side and propped himself up. “Against a minor, too. For shame, Grayson.” Gar waggled a finger in Dick’s direction as the older man went back to eyeing the menus. “If you get Chinese, I want some sweet and sour soup.”

   

 Dick waved a hand in a gesture that clearly said ‘screw off’ and Gar shrugged. “Just a suggestion.”

___

    

“Most embarrassing thing that’s ever happened to you?” Gar asked before slurping at his soup. “Outside of high school.”

    

“I’m not you,” Roy picked up a pair of chopsticks. “I’m too smooth to be embarrassed.”

    

“So, that time Kory threw you across the room doesn’t count?” He took another slurp from his soup, attempting to look innocent while the others tried not to laugh into their food. “I thought that would be the top of the list. Or would it be your taste in women?”

   

 Roy sat back on his box. “Will you stop if I say Kory throwing me across the room was embarrassing?”

    

Gar shrugged. “I think that can be arranged if you give me some of that chicken.”

    

“Fine.” Roy spooned chicken onto a plate in front of Gar before sitting back and digging into his plate again. He stopped and leaned to the side, his arm dropping to prop himself up against his knee before nodding in Donna’s direction. “I bet you haven’t had any embarrassing moments, Donna. I don’t think I’ve ever seen you trip yourself up.”

    

She held up her free hand and swallowed. “I plead the fifth, Roy.”

    

His brows shot up, almost meeting with his hairline. “Oh no, that sounds like you’re hiding some embarrassing past.” His auburn hair flopped to the side as he turned to Kory. “Kory, my beautiful friend, is Donna hiding something by any chance?”

    

Kory looked to Donna before mirroring her friends earlier gesture. “I’m sorry, Roy, but I can’t tell you anything.”

    

“You sound like you’re at a sleepover, Roy.” Dick sat down between Donna and Kory, a bottle of water in one hand and a container of noodles in the other, lowering himself to the box carefully. “Is ‘how are you’ too boring?”

    

“I think you missed the part where Garfield started this, Dick.” Roy took a swig from his beer. “But yes, that is too boring. I want to get down to the juicy stuff.”

    

Vic sat himself down on the other side of Donna, a grin wide on his face. “If you want juicy, talk about Gar’s love life.”

    

“No, time-out, that’s a foul.” Gar held his hands up in the shape of a ‘T.’ “We are not talking about my love life tonight.”

    

“You sure? I think some of us could give you some advice.” Roy wiggled his eyebrows and took another drink. “Sides, it’s gotta be nice to have a real love life.”

    

Donna’s head tilted. “What do you mean ‘a real love life?’”

    

“You know,” Roy shrugged. “I have Lian to look out for now. I can’t really do things the way I used to do them.”

    

“Right, broken hearts abound.” Gar’s eyes widened momentarily in emphasis as he drained the last of his soup and started in on the chicken on his plate. “I’m sure there was a lot of those when you were young. Did you play with the stick and hoop, too?”

    

“Shut up, you know what I mean.” Roy set the bottle down on the floor. “I definitely don’t regret taking, Lian, though. She’s the best thing to happen to me since the Titans.”

    

A murmur of agreement went through the group, everyone nodding to separate rhythms. Lian was the first Titans kid and she was spoiled by the team. Kory loved the idea of being an aunt and Donna had tried to organize as many playdates between Lian and Robbie as possible (and now it was impossible).

    

Donna picked at her food now, the noodles held little interest for her but she pushed them across her plate anyway, using the fork to push them into a small pile. She sighed at it, the thought of Lian had turned her so quickly to Robbie.

    

Dick nudged her knee with his when he noticed the turn in her mood. “You okay?”

    

She shrugged and looked up at him, their eyes meeting as everyone else chatted around them, talking about what Lian had done as a baby.

    

“Terry isn’t letting me see Robbie until Christmas.” She set her plate on the box closest to her. “Roy talking about Lian reminded me.” Their divorce and subsequent, bitter custody battle had worn her down. Being with her friends had let her forget what she was currently embroiled in.

    

“You know, I never really liked the guy.” Dick shrugged and took a gulp of water.

    

Donna shook her head, a smile creeping onto her face. “Are you saying that to make me feel better?”

    

“No, I just never liked the way he was always hanging around.” Dick glanced over at Donna. “I know it’s a little late to say it but he just never sat right with me.”

    

She shrugged and picked up her plate again, taking a bite of her noodles this time instead of pushing them around. Marrying Terry wasn’t the biggest regret of her life but having Dick confirm some of the recent thoughts she had about him (too old for her, too recently divorced) made her feel vindicated. Justified in thinking he wasn’t right for her in the first place.

    

Donna took another bite of her noodles and Dick followed suit. Slowly, silence and the sound of teeth against utensils was the only thing heard as they all realized how hungry they were after a day of moving. Dick bumped his shoulder against Kory’s, their knees resting up against the other’s. Roy might have rolled his eyes if he hadn’t been so focused on digging the last pieces of chicken from the bottom of his container.

    

Gar cleared his throat, breaking the companionable silence that had settled over them.

    

“Do you guys ever – ” he held up a hand and swallowed. “Do you guys ever think about Raven?”

    

His question was innocuous but Kory’s eyes dropped to her plate, her eyebrows drawing together.

    

Vic raised his brow. “This better be good, Greenie.”

    

“I just mean, I kind of didn’t notice she was gone before you guys got married.” His eyes shifted to his own plate as he tried to do damage control. “I didn’t mean – Kory, I really didn’t mean it like that.” Gar shrugged. “I know it’s cliché but I feel bad that I didn’t really notice her until she was really gone.”

    

Vic shrugged. “I thought she was just off doing her own thing.” He looked down at his hands, the metal glistening under the light of a bare bulb. “It’s not like she hadn’t done that before, you know. Disappeared and showed up later. That was kinda her thing for a while.”

    

“I – uh – I didn’t know her well.” Roy set down his container on a box. “I didn’t realize she was gone until she showed up at the wedding like Maleficent.”

    

Dick raised a questioning brow.

    

Roy pulled a face. “You know, the bad fairy in Sleeping Beauty?”

    

“Sure.” Dick dropped his fork into his container. “I was too caught up in my own problems to realize she was gone until it was too late. I still don’t really understand what happened.”

    

Dick looked over to Kory. Her eyes were still focused on the plate in her hands that lay limp in her lap, almost lifeless. Red curls fell in her face, obscuring most of her face from him. He took her plate and set it down before laying his own hand in one of hers.

    

“Goldie, it ain’t your fault. You gotta know that.” Vic piped up from across the circle of friends. “You did what you had to do. What if she tried to kill Dick?” He nodded at her husband. “What if she had hurt Donna?” His hand gestured at their friend. “You did what you had to do when the rest of us couldn’t. ’Sides, it wasn’t her anymore – you all saw that red skin, right?”

    

There was a murmur of agreement and the nodding of heads. Vic had made his point to the rest of them but Kory’s eyebrows were still drawn together.

    

She shook her hair out of her face and looked at him, her eyes clear. “I still feel like I murdered one of my family members.” Dick squeezed her hand. “Nothing can change that feeling, Vic.”

    

He looked back down at his hands. “I know, Kory, and I’m sorry.” A sigh forced its way out of his nose and he looked up at her again, his cybernetic eye assessing her expression. “But I’m still gonna tell you that it wasn’t your fault, even if you won’t believe us when we say that.”

    

Kory nodded. Not agreeing but accepting that they couldn’t settle on an agreement.

    

Donna cleared her throat, awkwardly cutting through the tension. “I think I saw some fortune cookies in the bag over there if anyone wants to crack them open.”

    “Yeah, that sounds like a plan.” Roy shoved himself off of his box and followed Donna to the kitchen. 

    

“Fortune cookies sound good.” Gar stretched to set his plate on another box before holding up his hands. “Toss me one?”

    

“Sure – heads up.” Roy chucked a fortune cookie his way, pelting the side of Gar’s head instead of landing it in his hands.

    

“Hey!”

    

“I said heads up, didn’t I?”

    

Vic rolled his eyes and held his hand out as Donna walked by, catching one just as she plunked herself down between him and Dick again.

    

“Kory, heads up.” Donna tossed a fortune cookie over Dick and into Kory’s lap just in time for the red head to look up at her.

   

 “Oh,” she picked it up gingerly and opened the packaging to crack it open. Her fingers gently pulled the strip of paper from it and her eyes flitted over the words quickly. Kory’s brows pulled together again.

    

“So, what does it say?” Donna tried to peer over Dick’s head to get a good look at the writing but Kory crumpled it in her hand to quickly for her to get a glimpse at it.

    

“It was just something silly – ‘you will meet a tall stranger soon.’” She shrugged. “It doesn’t really mean anything.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hey, guys! I feel like I need to explain some things here (some essential staging imo); chapters 1-3 (and a few future chapters) take place between _New Titans_ #100 and #130 (the very last issue of the series). As we know, Dick and Kory's wedding was interrupted by Trigon possessed Dark Raven and they didn't end up getting married and if you've made it this far into the story, you know that they _do_ get married in this fic. 
> 
> Now, here's some of the things I feel you need to know if you're not super familiar with _New Titans/New Teen Titans_. Vic was brain dead for a while and then some things happened and he was Cyberion (that's a big mess I can't explain in just a few sentences), as you can see, he's not brain-dead _or_ Cyberion here. That won't have much of an effect on the story aside from kind of fixing up his story from the bad case of the 90s he caught. I also sped up Donna's divorce with Terry (I think, anyway, the timeline is a little confusing) to take place a little bit earlier than it did. Reasoning: I don't like Terry and I never have. Don't worry, though, little Robert Long absolutely will not die. This is a semi-happy place.
> 
> Anyway, if you guys couldn't tell, this is mostly a fluff chapter because I wanted to see how well I could handle multiple characters in a scene and I wanted to play around with the character dynamics. I'm leaving for Phoenix tomorrow, so I didn't want to have a super heavy chapter before I left. And because I'm going to be in Arizona for a week (save me), I'm probably not going to update until I get home. However, I'll probably write some drabbles and if you're interested in that, please follow me on wattpad @aggressivekinetic! And as always, if you liked this chapter, please consider giving it a kudos and/or leaving me a comment~


	4. Questions

"If you don't do it now, it's never going to happen." Vic's eye was trained on Kory's outstretched arm, the lines of his face giving away nothing but his voice gave away everything. They had been in the room for over an hour and Kory hadn't mustered anything more but a stun from her fingertips. The dummy in front of her was barely singed.

Kory's jaw clenched, her molars grinding against each other. "I'm trying."

Vic's eyes shifted from Kory's arm to her face, a brow raising in question. To Kory, it looked like it was closer to doubt than it was to a question.

"Are you sure you're trying hard enough?" He crossed his arms over his chest. "Or are you too afraid to do anything?"

"I'm not afraid!" Her voice echoed through the room as the tension between them came to the surface. "You were there, you saw what happened when I – when I –" she stuttered and stopped. The words wouldn't come to her. She pressed the heels of her palms into her eyes before burying her fingers in her hair, pushing the curls back from her face.

Vic shrugged. "We all saw what happened but like I told you, Kory, that wasn't your fault. You didn't have a choice." He gestured to the dummy in front of them and the rest of the dummies situated around the training room. "But right now you do have a choice and I wanna see you exercising it. I want to see you use your powers again." He jabbed a finger at her. "And I know you do, too."

Kory nodded, faintly, just a scant movement of her head that might be taken for agreement if only by someone whose bionics could pick it up.

"Alright," he pointed at the dummy. "Try again."

She grit her teeth and raised her arm again, trying to call the energy to her hand while pushing back against the memories that wanted to rise to the surface every time she used her powers.

Kory took a breath and forced it back out as the energy slowly accumulated in her hand, giving off a faint pink glow. She breathed – in, out, in – and took control of the flow of energy. With each breath out, energy flowed into the palm of her hand. She kept breathing, kept pushing energy into her hand. If she was ever going to return to fighting full time, she would have to work through Raven's death.

She let the energy go and her arm almost recoiled from the force. It didn't occur to her that she had really used her starbolts until her eyes took in the smoldering hole that the dispersal of energy had left in it.

"Hey! See, that's what I'm talkin' about, Goldie." Vic was smiling now, his cheeks dimpling as he wrapped a cold arm around Kory's shoulders. "Now you just gotta do it four more times." He gestured again at the dummies around the room, situated on the four corners of the mats, Vic was serious again. "You should try to call up the same amount of energy you did the first time."

His arm slid from her shoulder and he stepped back to watch her. The energy accumulation in her palm was quicker this time, each breath short and sharp as the energy pulsed in her hand. She let it go again, aiming for the dummy in the right corner of the mats; her arm did recoil this time but her starbolt took a straight shot through the foam, the energy eating away at it and reducing it to nothing more than a smoldering lump.

She did it again, and again, and again until the rest of the dummies were nothing more than smoldering bits of foam and plastic.

Vic tossed a water bottle her way when she was done, her chest heaving and her shoulders glistening with sweat. She caught the bottle with ease and took a swig from it; physically, she felt like she was just getting started but mentally, she was exhausted.

She dropped onto a bench and took another gulp of water, watching Vic as he gathered up what was left of the training dummies and threw them into a bin. He swept the bits of foam from the mat into a pile and left it to come sit by her, the bench bending a little under his added weight.

"So, you gonna tell Dick about today or are you gonna wait?" He didn't look at her when he asked, he just leaned forward, his elbows on his knees as he waited for an answer.

"I don't know yet." Another mouthful of water made its way down her throat. "I don't like hiding things from him but I don't know if I want to tell him yet." She looked down at her hands, studying their creases. "It's taken us weeks to get to this point and I'm not at my full capacity yet. I don't want him to get his hopes up if I can't work through it quick enough."

Vic tipped his head from side to side, weighing her words. "Isn't that the kind of thing you're supposed to talk about when you're married, Kor?"

"You don't have to talk about everything when you're married," she sighed. The words felt like an acid betrayal on her tongue. When had she not been absolutely transparent Dick? She bit down on the inside of her cheek. "Vic, if I can't do it again for a while – I just don't want him to – " she stopped and bit down harder.

Vic shrugged. "I think you're still scared."

Kory's nails dug into her palms. "Maybe I am."

"You were right, you don't have to tell Dick everythin' but I don't think you're afraid of him being excited." He laced his fingers together. "I've never seen you like this, Kory." He paused, taking a moment to gather his thoughts. "You've never been afraid to tell us what you're thinkin' or what's happenin.'" He threw up a hand, unlacing his fingers and gesturing in the air.

"I've been through a lot," they all had. "But I never had time to think about it, not like I've had time to think about Raven." When she was a slave, she had to keep moving to stay alive. There wasn't time for her to think about what had happened the night before or to think about the person who had dropped dead next to her, their body unrecognizable within minutes as it was walked over and covered with mud. She saw them in her dreams as shadows now.

Raven's death was still new in her mind. Still fresh. The horror of seeing one of her closest friends moving from life to death in front of her was different. Killing one of her closest friends was different.

Vic rubbed his hand over his mouth. "I'm sorry, Kory."

___

Dick handed Kory a file folder. "Before you open it, you have to guess what it is."

She quirked a brow and eyed the file folder suspiciously. "Why?"

"Just do it," a crackle of static followed a disembodied voice. "I'm sure Boy Wonder won't tell if you don't."

Kory shrugged and ran through a list of everyone they had come up against in the short time they had spent in Bludhaven. The small crime organizations and the nameless figure they could barely get intel on came to the forefront of her mind.

Then there were the crooked cops but...there wouldn't be information on them lying around for Dick, right?

"Is it information on the crime boss we've been trying to hunt down?"

"No – it's better," he almost grinned as Kory's eyebrow went higher, nearly meeting her hairline. "I'll explain or better yet – Oracle?"

There was a chuckle, followed by the sound of fingertips tapping against a keyboard.

"No problem," another burst of static. "There's a lot of stuff floating around the web – mostly just rumors – about Chief Redhorn and Bludhaven's crooked cops." Which was to say, almost all of them. "It's nothing they'd ever be able to dig up but I found it and it's pretty interesting – it's not enough to bring down the BPD but it's information that would give you guys some leverage over the cops of the city."

Kory nodded along as Oracle outlined what the file was for and flipped it open. There were blurry pictures of police officers paper clipped into the folder, lists of cops who had bribed prostitutes, word-for-word transcripts of conversations with police officers caught on audio. In a city like Bludhaven, this would only be leverage.

"I guess I still don't know how Earth works," her eyes flicked over the papers. "Why is an organization that's supposed to protect its people so corrupt?"

Dick shrugged. "It's a cycle. The power goes to someone's head and they get to other people who might be on the verge of thinking the same way and then they do the same thing. They might bribe people, they might pick out the laziest cops, they might threaten people. All to stay in power or get more power." He sighed and shuffled some papers. "There's a lot of reasons why things go bad, Kory."

There was another crackle of static on Oracle's line. "People see it as an opportunity to put themselves in a position of power over other people. I'd think it would happen everywhere."

Kory shrugged, still flipping through the papers. "My sister took power to do just that but somehow, she was seen as a better leader than even my father was."

There was silence on the line and Dick eyed the comm-link in the middle of the table.

"Oracle, you there?"

"I'm here," another burst of static. "I just wanted to see if I had anything on your sister, Kory."

"I doubt you would have her in your database, yet." Kory set the file folder down. "Dick and I can fill you in on the details later. She's a complicated figure."

Dick snorted. "She's not that complicated – she's a grade A bitch, that's all you need to know."

Kory gave a roll of her eyes and Oracle snorted on the other end of the line.

"What? She's tried to kill you more times than I'd like to count, I think I should be able to call her that once in a while." He shrugged and pushed himself off of the table. "Anyway, like Kory said, if you want that info, we can fill you in later."

"Alright," Oracle gave a chuckle. "Oracle out – I'll talk to you later, Kory."

"I'll call you tomorrow." Kory smiled as they said their goodbyes and signed off. Oracle had talked to them more than she had when they first moved in, a sign that the person on the other end was more comfortable with them now that they talked on an almost-daily basis.

Kory still didn't know much about the person behind Oracle; maybe that they were a woman and that wasn't a fact she was sure of. Full disclosure wasn't a part of their relationship. Not when it came to Oracle's end of it. When it came to Dick and Kory, she seemed to know everything to know about them (at least, everything that she could possibly find). She knew little about Kory's home planet and her background, there were no records on her in the Gordanian systems.

They didn't keep good records, to say the very least. Even if she had been able to find records on Kory's slave days, the Gordanian language would be incomprehensible for any human. Even one as gifted as Oracle seemed to be.

Kory flipped the file folder closed and pushed herself away from the table, eyeing the kitchen door as she sniffed the air.

She turned back to Dick. "Did you make dinner?"

He shrugged, a grin spreading across his face. "I might be good for something every once in a while." Dick nodded towards their enclosed kitchen. "There's salad on the counter and pasta in pot on the stove. I thought you'd be hungry after being at Vic's all day."

"Well, you were right." She grabbed a plate and dug into the pasta with a soft smile. "How did you have any time to do this, Dick?"

He shrugged and shoved his hands into his pockets. "I decided to make time today. We've had way too much take out lately."

She laughed, knowing he was right. Neither of them had time for anything else between their day jobs and their night jobs. Take out containers had littered their kitchen counter the day before, stacked neatly to go out but they were there nonetheless until they had decided it was time to make the trip down the hall to the garbage chute.

Kory sat down just as Dick got up to make his own plate (their kitchen didn't encourage two people moving at the same time) before he could join her. It was so rare these days, that they could both sit down to dinner at the same time; Dick would be gone before she was home sometimes. Kory was increasingly gone before he could come back from a shift.

She toed off her shoes, nudging Dick with the tips of her toes when he sat down across from her.

"Are you going to stay over there all night?" Kory gave a smile and twirled her fork in the spaghetti.

Dick froze as he picked up his fork, eyebrows raised. He looked behind himself, then to the sides and mouthed 'me?'

Kory gave a roll of her eyes, a smile creeping onto her face despite the cheesiness of the gesture.

"Yes, you." She poked her fork at him playfully. "We haven't had dinner together in at least two weeks."

"Well, I'll have you know that I just so happened to have rented a movie for us to watch tonight." Dick leaned back, smug. "So, I won't stay over here all night. At least, I hope I won't stay over here all night."

She gave a shake of her head, still smiling. "What did you rent?" She twirled her fork again. The movies they hadn't seen in the last few years could possibly number in the hundreds, so anything would be a surprise.

Watching Romancing the Stone again, however, was also a possibility. Kory couldn't count on two hands the amount of times she and Donna had rented it for Friday movie nights.

Her husband shrugged, his broad shoulders rolling underneath his t-shirt.

"I guess you'll have to watch and find out," his eyebrows wiggled before they went back to their dinner, eating mostly in silence. Nudging one another with their bare toes every so often and smiling over their food before they settled in for their movie.

Kory settled herself against Dick, laying her legs across his lap as the opening credits started rolling to low, ominous music. Then, the title lit up the screen, Jurassic Park.

"Did you really rent that dinosaur movie?" Kory's brows knit together as Dick laid his arm across her shoulders, his fingers stroking across her skin absently.

"Yeah, we haven't seen it." His fingers started drawing circles on her arm. "The Addams Family looked too cheesy. It's a Tuesday, so I thought there'd be more but I guess people held on to their tapes a little longer this week."

Kory gave a hum of agreement and watched as the camera panned up, through the darkness and rustling plants just as Dick's pocket started beeping. They groaned in unison and pushed off from each other, the mood broken by the pager. She could hear him in her mind, excited after he had done his research. It's the next best thing to a comm-link these days!

The next best thing when it came to interrupting their nights together.

"It's a non-emergency urgent code from Vic," Dick looked at the pager screen and sighed, the air forcing itself out of his lungs loudly. "Do you think we have to go?"

Kory raised a brow. "Did I hear you correctly, Dick? You're considering shirking the duties of your duties as a Titan?"

 

"Oh, come on, Kory, don't do that to me." He squeezed his eyes shut and rubbed them roughly with his fingers.

She wrapped her arms around his shoulders and planted a kiss on his cheek.

"I was teasing you, honey."

Dick sighed and laid a hand over her forearms. "I know but I don't think we've had any real time to ourselves since the honeymoon."

"We can go off the grid tomorrow night, then. No pagers." She gave him a squeeze and pressed her cheek against his.

Dick squeezed her arm. "Alright, no pagers." His shoulders tensed and he pushed out of Kory's arms, all Nightwing. "We should get going."

___

 

"I'm sorry for paging you guys – I know you were probably doing casework or something but this is pretty important." Vic waved Dick and Kory over to a large computer screen and the two exchanged a look. "I picked up a Tamaranean signal not too long ago and it turns out –" he brought up a picture on the screen. "It's your sister."

Kory's jaw clenched. "What would my sister be doing trying to contact you?"

"Well," Vic put a fist on his hip. "That's what I asked her. Then she did the whole 'how dare you question me' bit and I hung up on her after she called me tin man." His mouth was pressed into a line. "Then I picked up another signal and it was this man –" he brought up a picture of a man with red skin and white hair. "He's General Ph'yzzon and he was a lot more accommodating of your dear sister."

"I think that's a given," Dick muttered. "So, what did she want?"

"Good question, Short Pants." Vic tapped on the keyboard and both pictures disappeared, only to be replaced by a picture of Tamaran, its two moons silhouetted by the sun behind them. Both of his hands dropped to brace himself against the tabletop and he closed his eye. "There isn't an easy way to say this. Komand'r and the general told me that after the fall of the Citadel, the Psions took an even more prominent position as the tormentors of the Vega system and decided to make Tamaran a target."

The three of them stood in silence. Kory shoved her hands in her hair to try and keep herself together as she attempted to make sense of it. Tamaran was rich in natural resources with lowered defenses as a result of the Citadel's dominion over them, even with a people fresh from a war it would be difficult to hold off the Psions.

Her thoughts threatened to spiral out of control and she squeezed her eyes shut. She took a breath. She held it and counted. It released itself.

Her fingers slid free of her curls. "What are they threatening?"

"They're threatening to destroy the planet if your parents don't give themselves and the planet up peacefully. They want to mine it for its resources, apparently." Vic's fingers dug into the metal of the table but not quite enough to dent it. He shook his head, his voice low. "I'm sorry, Goldie."

"Why would my sister wait for the situation to escalate to this to tell me?"

The man gave a shrug and shook his head. "I don't know, Kory. Batman sent a message over not too long after – she tried calling the league before she called us. Bats hung up on her, though, didn't think she was worth his time after she spent so much time putting the Titans in danger."

"He was right." Dick spat, his voice laced with bitterness. "Komand'r obviously only wants our help as a last resort –"

"Yeah and we know you'd cut off your ponytail before helping her." Vic cut him off. "If the planet's in danger, then it's our duty to help out Tamaran. Right, Kory?"

"My parents might be trapped. Who knows how many people have been able to get off planet – we need to act quickly if we want the save Tamaran."

"That seals it, then." Vic looked her in the eye before he shifted his gaze to Dick.

"I already know that I can't go," Dick's eyes cut away from them, guilty. Angry. "The department won't give a rookie cop time off and I can't fake being sick, they send officers to check up on you to make sure you're not lying." He could feel Kory deflate, her shoulders slumping. He lowered his voice and turned his face into her bare shoulder. "I'm sorry, love."

She turned her head, tired eyes taking him in as Vic turned away from them, giving them what little privacy he could offer in his small monitor room.

Dick's hand slid from her back to settle on her waist as they turned to each other.

"It probably won't take that long, right? A month or two at most and then you're back on Earth with me." His other hand took hers. "I'm sure the League would agree to sending some reinforcements with you – it'll make things easier and quicker." The misgivings in her eyes spurred him on. "Your sister can't hurt you anymore, Kory."

She finally broke the eye contact and looked away from him, to the monitor displaying the picture of Tamaran.

Kory looked back at him. "I know. I just don't want to go up there without you. Not again."

Dick pulled her in, his arms encircling her back gently. His chin came to rest on her shoulder as she buried her face in his hair, her own curls covering his back like a curtain. Their embrace lasted a few long seconds before Dick pulled away and reached up a hand, pushing her curls back from her face.

"I know you'll be okay Kory." His fingers threaded themselves through her curls. "You're stronger than everyone I know – you're going to be okay."

Kory's eyes grew glassy and her embrace tightened around him. She buried her face in his shoulder this time and shook so minutely Dick almost didn't catch it. He let her cry against him, holding her and stroking her back as she released her tensions. He'd do whatever Kory needed him to do, even if it was just holding her while she cried.

"Hey," he finally interrupted the silence. "At least they can't make you get married again."

She gave a choked laugh and pushed back from him finally, wiping the tears from her face.

"Yes, at least they can't make me do that."

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hey, guys! Thanks for being patient, I was in Arizona most of last week (was that in my author's note for chapter three?) and I didn't feel too up to writing. It was 108 F almost every day and that's not really conducive for creating. 
> 
> Anyway! Thank you for all the great comments so far and to those of you who are familiar with what _New Titans_ storyline I'm playing off of, don't give it away!


	5. Silence Says More

The silence seemed to muffle all sound instead of amplifying it like they thought it would. Every scuff of a shoe against the floor, a tired or impatient sight, the slight rustling of a slight movement. No noise could puncture the cocoon of quiet they had made and it didn't matter, their movements were slowing to a stop anyway. Kory was too intent on waiting for the next transmission to move from her spot. There was no time to take a walk or stretch her limbs, even if she had wanted to. She was tired but wound tight as thoughts of her sister's face and Tamaran whirled through her head.

She wanted news of her home planet but she was even more curious to see the self-styled queen of Tamaran and what kind of leader she had grown into. Kory wanted to see if her sister was someone she could trust.

She wanted to know if Komand'r would be as much of a snake as she had been in the past.

Kory stared at her hands without seeing them. She supposed only time would tell.

She raised her eyes to the monitor. They were still waiting on her sister's transmission all these hours later, it was just like Komand'r to keep them waiting, even if it was something important. Her eyes fell to her knee and even though she could see it, Kory barely registered the feel of Dick's hand on her leg; in her exhaustion, it felt like she was watching him squeeze someone's knee and not feeling the pressure herself.

Her focus, again, turned to the monitor. Kory stared long enough to let her eyes dry and her field of vision narrow until all she could see was the faint blue glow of the screen. The characters on it blurred, twisting when she tried to squint at them and focus.

A hand shaking her knee made her blink and look down at herself. Dick's hand again. Her dull eyes flicked up to his face. His eyebrows were raised expectantly at her. She smiled, an empty and tired gesture that she could barely hold.

Dick's hand warmed her knee. "Kor, you can't stay here waiting for her all night."

She blinked and looked away, realizing how long it had been since she had started watching the monitor. They had been in that room for hours, waiting for another transmission from her sister and she had been staring at the screen for at least half that time. Dick was still looking at her when she turned back to him and she realized, he knew what she wanted to do; she wanted to wait up until her sister decided to call and give them the information they needed. She wanted to know if her planet would survive to see another sunrise in its golden skies and if her parents would live to see it with their people.

But she was almost too tired, too worn down, to give him a response. She wasn't like Dick, who seemed to be able to function without sleep and without sunlight. She sighed and looked away from her husband to their friend, whose own eye was drooping as he tried not to drop off to sleep. His cybernetic eye grew dimmer each time Vic's organic eye closed. Dick's eyes weren't visible under his mask but the stubble on his cheeks was. It was the only sign that he needed to rest and take time for himself. Kory lifted a hand to his face, appreciating the rare, rough feel of it on his face.

Dick's thumb rubbed against her knee, creating a pleasant friction against her skin. Kory didn't answer as quickly when she was tired; she was more affectionate than talkative, curling into him or around him when he climbed into bed at night or in the early hours of the morning. Their limbs so tangled and intertwined in the morning that for a few seconds, they forgot that they weren't one person.

Dick brought up his own hand to cup hers and turned his face into it, enjoying the warmth it offered in a room that seemed to leech the heat from his body. He pressed a kiss to her palm and drew her hand to his chest, holding it there as Kory's shoulders finally relaxed. He squeezed her knee again.

"You know, we still have the apartment here – we can go there for a few hours and come back in the morning." He leaned his forehead against hers, his lips almost brushing hers as he whispered to her. "Your sister might be asleep right now or busy plotting. Whatever it is she's doing, I don't think she's going to call back anytime soon."

They were interrupted by the shrill, distinct sound of a transmission and jumped apart as if they'd been scalded. Their eyes were wide as they jumped up, ready to receive whatever news Komand'r had for them.

Vic jumped up as they did, wide awake before the first signal had come to a stop. His hands flew over the keyboard, opening up a window that was pixelated before focusing form Komand'r's face. He pushed himself off of the edge of the table, making room for Kory at the chair settled in front of it.

The screen appeared frozen for a moment before Komand'r came to life, her characteristic sneer turning to a baring of her teeth as she tried to move her face into a smile. Charm was never one of her assets, if she had any. Kory bit back a grimace and looked into the screen.

"Sister," the tinny voice drawled from an unseen speaker. "It's so good to see you looking – " she struggled to find her words as she took in Kory's tangled curls and dark circles. She tried to arrange her lips into a smile again, succeeding this time as she settled on a word. "You look rested."

Kory wasted no time with her sister's pleasantries, she didn't have the patience or the time for them.

"Where are our parents?"

"Straight to the point, of course." Komand'r leaned her elbows on the surface in front of her. "Sister –"

"Stop calling me that." Kory's nostrils flared and she practically snarled. "I don't want your fake pleasantries. I want to know how our parents are, how our people are!"

Komand'r jumped and winced as the speakers on the other end gave out a tinny feedback.

"There is a Psion blockade around the planet, Koriand'r." She sat back.

Kory blinked. "A blockade?"

"Yes, a blockade." Komand'r sneered in frustration and crossed her arms, her torso hitting the back of her chair with a thump. Her patience with the situation was evidently already thin. "Our parents are trapped and there is no way in and no way out."

Vic's hand came to rest on the back of Kory's chair, reassuring her as the weight shifted slightly from the front of the chair to the back.

He raised his brow and looked into the screen. "You need our help, right?"

She shrugged. "I wanted the Justice League to step in but Koriand'r will do." Komand'r tilted her head. "I only want someone to get my parents off of the planet before the Psions do what they threatened. I don't doubt that they will eventually destroy the planet, even if they're given what they want." Her voice was bitter and she looked away from the screen, her jaw clenching.

Even with her sister caring about the well-being of their parents, the reality of the situation pushed Kory's patience to the edge. Why would Komand'r have let the situation escalate to this level before asking Kory to step in?

Kory clenched her fists in her lap, determined not to let her anger get the better of her as she looked at her sister. The lines of her face had pulled down into a tired frown. Kory's fists unclenched as she took in her sister, the weary slope of her shoulders The permanent lines between Komand'r's brows had deepened as silence stretched between she and her sister.

"Why didn't you tell me this sooner?" Kory's eyes rose to the screen to meet her sister's again. They were both tired. It might have been the first time that Kory had felt sympathy for her sister in years.

"Excuse me?" Her sister lifted an already high brow.

Any anger left uncoiled inside her and disappeared as she raised her voice to a normal volume. "Why didn't you tell me sooner, Komand'r?" Her voice bounced off of the walls. "Why would you wait until the blockade had barred you from the planet to ask for help?"

Komand'r blew a sharp breath out of her nose. "I didn't realize I needed you until it was too late."

Kory tugged on her curls and crossed her arms over her chest, the two sisters distorted mirror images of one another. She tried to understand. Tried to see the situation through the eyes of a new ruler trying to prove herself to a people that she had taken from a kind man who had only expected they fight for their planet. They would be tired, restless. Waiting for her to prove herself as a ruler and a warrior if she hadn't already.

Dick snorted and crossed his arms over his chest. "This is unbelievable."

"Do you have something to say?" Komand'r's face twisted from tired into scowling as she turned on Kory's husband.

"Yeah, I do." Dick stood up straight, his back tight. "It seems really convenient that you'd only call Kory when the situation could only get worse. Doesn't that seem like something she'd do, Vic?"

The two stood together, their arms crossed over their chests as they glowered at the screen.

"Yeah, it sure does, Short Pants. Maybe taking a cheap shot at your sister because you know she'd do anything to save Tamaran?" It didn't matter what her general had said to him, he was still suspicious of the Tamaranean queen no matter how convincing her military leaders were.

Komand'r pursed her lips in anger and glowered back, her eyebrows low. Kory clenched her teeth.

"Don't talk for me." Kory closed her eyes. "I don't need aggression right now."

Dick mumbled something and Vic looked away, the two of them sufficiently chastised by the woman sitting in front of them. Kory let her eyes fall on her sister. The meeting wasn't going the way either of them had wanted it to; they were in the middle of a tense situation. Arguments and anger from the people she cared about wouldn't solve the tensions between Tamaran and a race of killers. They certainly wouldn't make her tenuous relationship with Komand'r better.

"Komand'r," Kory started, surprising her sister with her civility. "I think it would be best if we talked to your general instead."

Her sister deflated, shoulders slumping as a hand came up to push back her fall of curls. She looked defeated. Done.

"Are you trying to insult me, Koriand'r?" Her voice didn't hold any of the usual bite, a sign that she was well and truly done.

Kory watched her sister before responding.

"No, I'm not insulting you. I think you should get some rest before I talk to you next." And in just a few moments, she had forgiven her sister for her shortcomings again. The mistakes she made now weren't made out of malice, they didn't need to be dragged out.

Her sister whispered a few words and then was gone, her cape swirling out of view of the camera and a few moments later they were joined by the man with red skin. Upon further inspection, Kory found that his white hair was streaked with gray. She couldn't discern whether or not it meant he was older than he looked or if the stress of another war had taken its toll on him.

"Hello, your highness." The man gave a deep bow and sat, adjusting himself in the seat before he settled in. "You requested my presence, Princess?"

The fatigue and aches of sleeplessness that was catching up to her slipped away as she straightened in her own seat.

"I thought that my sister might need a few more hours of sleep before speaking to me and I was told that you gave my friend," she glanced over at Vic before turning back to Ph'yzzon. "The information Komand'r could not in your earlier transmission."

The man nodded and leaned forward to rest his elbows on the tabletop in front of him.

"That is correct. What do you want to know?"

Kory took a deep breath. "I want to know everything, General Ph'yzzon."

The general closed his eyes for a few seconds, seeming to gather his thoughts, and nodded. His head bobbed in an jerky staccato, like someone was pulling strings from above, making him agree to tell her everything that she needed to know.

"The Psion's own world is starting to run out of unrenewable resources – things that we have in abundance, Princess." He opened his eyes, the lines of his face weary in ways that they hadn't been when he had entered the room. He smiled a tired smile, the kind that war gives to you when it's taken everything else away. "They want to take our forests, drain our rivers, and take our people for more experimentation. Like they took you." His voice quieted and he looked off screen, his eyes far away. "Like they took me. They want our resources before theirs and others are depleted – they are decades away from losing their planet to the destruction they started but they are a cold, calculating people. I trust that you remember what they are like." His eyes flicked back to Kory, still tired but filled with more anger than they had previously held. "They have a contingency plan for everything, even – and especially – at the cost of the lives of other species. The Citadel's fall just makes it easier for them to take what they want from our system. They exploit us just as the Citadel did and I do not know how we can stop it."

Kory's jaw had had tightened to the point that her teeth started to grind against one another – the awful sound they made was the only thing she could hear when Ph'yzzon was finished. The Psions would go this far for resources; the resources that Tamaraneans did not selfishly hoard, the resources that the Tamaranean people instead revered and loved. Their planet was as sacred to them as the name of X'hal and the Psions would take it from them as they took everything they wanted. They would leave their own star system to harass the people she loved and the planet she held dear to her heart for the resources that they had depleted. Resources they could very well replicate in a lab experiment, yet for all their supposed brilliance they were lazy and unresourceful.

They would take away the very thing that made Tamaran the planet she and her people loved; the absolute freedom of running across the forest floor and flying through the tree branches into the sky above, the great golden expanse that inspired poetry and verse from Tamaran's greatest artists. Everything would be gone if the Psions had their way and if they didn't get it, she knew they would destroy the planet so no one could have it. They were like a spiteful child with a toy they wanted; they didn't want to share it, they wanted it all to themselves and if anyone tried to wrest it from them they retaliated and destroyed it.

Kory let herself unwind and her fists fell apart, fingers uncurling in her lap. She forced herself to breath. In, hold, out. Repeat. Raven's breathing techniques still came to mind when Kory couldn't control herself. It was painful, thinking about her friend, but the things she had taught her still came in handy when she was still in the right mind to remember them.

She let out another breath and met the general's gaze. "And my sister only wants me to get our parents off of the planet?"

He gave a nod, his lips pulling into a frown. "The queen believes that a small rescue mission is all she can manage until the situation is dissolved." The general didn't sound convinced.

"Dissolved?" Kory and Dick spoke in unison, meeting each other's eyes before they returned their gaze to the screen.

Ph'yzzon gave another nod of his head. "Yes, I believe that with the Titans help that the situation could be handled. You have dealt with tense situations before, correct?"

Vic pushed himself off the wall, interested in participating in conversation now that it had come down to the Titans and their involvement in the situation. He and Dick stood together behind Kory again, the three of them no doubt crowding into the screen on the other end of the transmission.

"I don't think 'tense' covers the situation you're in, General." Dick cut in as he let his hands come to rest on the back of Kory's chair. "The Justice League is more suited to handling negotiations between entire planets. The Titans aren't an organization with that kind of reach – we disbanded and currently, only a few of us are active. What exactly would you have us do?"

Ph'yzzon sat back in his chair with no attempt to hide his surprise at Dick's information.

"I did not realize that you were so small a force," Ph'yzzon paused, seeming to search for the right words. "I have to confess that I'm not very familiar with the organizations of Earth, they so rarely come to the Vega system."

"Most of our heroes don't seem to go where the Green Lantern Corps isn't allowed, General." Dick tried to tamp down the bitterness in his voice but it came anyway, giving his words an edge that he hadn't meant to have. If the Green Lantern's had the good sense to violate the rules they had laid out for themselves, Kory wouldn't have been forced into slavery. His hands tightened on the back of his wife's chair as he tried to breathe through his anger at the past. Kory turned and removed one of his hands from the chair back to hold it in one of hers.

"Ah, yes, you're right." The general's mouth flattened into a line. "The Corps still hasn't breeched that law, they won't interfere in a situation that's largely their making. The Guardians still won't acknowledge it."

Dick nodded in response, quiet this time. The Lantern Corps didn't have to keep their word when an entire star system was being terrorized but they did and the inhabitants of the Vega system suffered for it. The system itself was rife with crime – slavery and sex trafficking seemed to only be the tip of the iceberg – and the Corps still did nothing; the makeshift police forces that cropped up here and there were usually vigilante groups that were quickly crushed under the foot of the Citadel. The only force left were the Omega Men and even they had trouble avoiding the reach of the Citadel before it had fallen. He looked down at Kory, who still held his hand in hers.

"Princess," the general addressed Kory. He was starting to look almost desperate, despite the fact that nothing was happening. His memories of the Psions were probably as fresh as Kory's were. "We only have so much time before the Psions make their move – I want to know before this transmission is over, do you intend to come to the Vega system?"

"General, I would never abandon Tamaran in its time of need." She assured him as Dick and Vic nodded behind her, giving the general their affirmative. "I made my decision before this transmission, I'm coming to Tamaran no matter what."

The general nodded, finally relaxing as she gave him her affirmation. "Thank you, Princess, I'm sure you know what this means to me. To us." He referred to the Tamaranean people. Or maybe he referred to her sister. "I'm sure we can spare a star-slider for you?" He ended on a question, waiting for her to fill in the blanks in his knowledge.

"No – I don't want to be a burden." She looked up at Dick. "I think we can arrange the travel, right?"

Her husband nodded and squeezed her hand. "I'm sure the Justice League will want to send reinforcements with Kory – she can go in a League issued cruiser, General."

The general nodded, distracted as he took in everything.

"Thank you," Kory interrupted his thoughts and his eyes snapped back to her. "For taking the time to speak to us. I'm sure you're a valuable member of my sister's navy, General, I'm thankful that you had the time to tell us the details." She gave a smile. The kind that could melt the coldest block of ice and he couldn't help but smile back, no matter how tired he was.

"It was my pleasure, Princess Koriand'r." He stood and placed his fist over his heart before he gave another deep bow. "I have always served the royal family and I will continue to do so." He kept his eyes on her as he stood. "I will do whatever you would have me do."

She bowed her head in agreement. "We appreciate your service, General."

He nodded and bowed again before the transmission screen went black.

Kory slumped in her chair, all of the energy of the moment leaving her as exhaustion flooded back to her body. Dick squeezed her hand and let it go to help Vic clean up, unplugging cords and tucking them away. They cleared away coffee cups and napkins stained with the drink, making the office look like an office instead of an emergency meeting room.

Dick tugged Kory to her feet and Vic shut off the lights. They would be asleep before their heads hit their pillows as the sun crested the New York skyline.

___

 

The Titans spent the next two days making calls and arrangements for the trip. Dick and Kory spent the next two days carefully avoiding one another as plans were made, trying to pretend that she wasn't leaving when they were only a year-and-a-half into their marriage. It was easier to pretend that she was going to be gone on a photoshoot but illusions never lasted, they would have to face the facts sooner rather than later. When they fell into bed together at night, they faced each other and held hands like it would never happen again and who knows? Every time they went into the field, they risked not coming back. Every time they went off planet, the risk increased until they were both filled with the anxiety and knowledge that this could be their last goodbye.

The League had agreed to send reinforcements with Kory – they formed a small but efficient team of people she had worked with before. Martian Manhunter and Batman had decided to go, keeping the Titans company and working as their more experienced comrades. While they had little experience with Tamaran, they knew more about negotiations between planets and races than the Titans could know. The team wasn't quite ready to handle that on their own, especially in the fractured state they were in.

Donna had decided to take a few of the Darkstars with her on the mission and Roy couldn't come – between raising Lian and raising the new Titans, he didn't have time to skip out for a space trip. Wally was busy, as usual. Vic and Gar had decided they were going (Vic would never abandon Kory when she needed him). Gar was finally graduating high school, he could afford to slack off of it a little bit for a few weeks in space. The less experienced Justice League members had been asked to come on the mission and a few had said yes, upping the count of people that Kory didn't know but was still grateful that they would volunteer to do something that they didn't need to do.

And Dick continued to tiptoe around her and the situation. The shadow of Tamaran fell between them, as much as they wanted to deny it.

Kory would leave before the end of the week and Dick could do nothing but watch her go and hope that she would make it home to him in one piece.

___

 

They stood together. Arms wrapped tightly around the other, their foreheads came to rest against the other's, while they whispered their goodbyes and tried to push away the fact that she was going to another star system twenty-six lightyears away. It had rested between them all week, they didn't need another reminder.

Their final goodbye was short. A kiss that they wouldn't forget and the squeeze of a hand before Kory had to board the ship and leave him standing on the surface of the planet she had made her home on. She strapped in between Vic and Donna, tears balancing on the edges of her lash line. Her chest ached. She wanted this to be over and done with as soon as possible.

Kory squeezed her eyes shut and leaned back into the seat, waiting for the pressure of the lift off before they breeched Earth's atmosphere. She opened her eyes and blinked away the tears, then reached down for Vic and Donna's hands. The three smiled at each other; another adventure for the Titans to weather together. Just one more mission to add to their memories. Her teammates squeezed her hands and they leaned back together, ready for whatever the universe threw at them next. As long as they were together, they knew they could handle it.


End file.
